Sword Art Online/Accel World creator Reki Kawahara returns to the United States, this time accompanied by Sword Art Online original character designer and illustrator abec, and editor/producer for Sword Art Online's light novel/anime Kazuma Miki.

Certain questions and responses have been abbreviated or paraphrased for clarity and to avoid confusion.

It has been a big week for Marvelous AQL and XSEED.  Recently announced by Marvelous AQL, XSEED Games, the publisher behind the localization of games such as Ys Origin, Ragnarok Odyssey and The Last Story, has been converted from XSEED JKS, Inc. into Marvelous USA.  This new formed company will oversee all the company's US operations.

While our staff was in Seattle covering Sakura-Con 2013, they had the fortunate chance to attend a more informal reception with Reki Kawahara. The collective information from the reception has been compiled here.

Fans of 8-bit visual style gaming rejoice.  At the latest BitSummit event in Kyoto, Japan, renowned independent game creator/artist/developer Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya revealed his latest work, Gero Blaster bound for release in May of 2013.

With a rough total of 195 new figures at the latest Winter Wonder Festival 2013, there is a lot to cover. Fortunately, we've taken the time to look through most of the new releases and picked out the best ones we think deserve the spotlight and your precious pre-order dollars.

Not surprisingly, Good Smile Company ranks in as #1 for their sheer number of new figures.  Granted more than half of them are Nendoroid and Nendoroid Petit series, but they've covered good ground and haven't left their non-Nendoroid fans in the dark.

Max Factory has 26 new figures, most of them are figmas, while Kotobukiya previewed 11 new figures for their line up.  (Warning: This post is very image heavy.)

Augmented Reality apps on mobile devices seem to be gaining in popularity.  Just recently COSPA announced that they are releasing a pair of T-shirts that take advantage of virtual augmentation on smart phones.  Obviously themed to match the recent virtual reality anime Accel World, one shirt gives you silver wings from Arita Haruyuki's (Silver Crow) Burst Avatar and the other shirt (made for girls) gives you Kuroyukihime's (Black Lotus) avatar butterfly wings.  The Silver Crow shirts come in sizes M, L, and XL while the Black Lotus shirts come in sizes S, M, and L.

Earlier this month, the Madoka Magica movies hit the big screens in Japan. Recognizing the interest overseas, Aniplex and SHAFT worked hard to bring the first two parts of the trilogy to foreign theaters. The very first screening was held at Downtown Independent in Los Angeles, California at 1:00PM. Being personal fans of the TV series, this was an event we would not miss.

After their recent success with lolitastic-Nisemonogatari and Madoka Magica, SHAFT has announced that it is launching a new project called Prism Nana (Prism Nana Project). With the upcoming Comic Market 82 (Comiket), SHAFT will be presenting this new project at their booth (No. 642). Comiket 82 will be held at Tokyo Big Sight convention center from August 10th to August 12th, 2012.

This marks two recently announced anime series that are using Kantoku, a Japanese illustrator and graphic artist, for their character designs. The first one being Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko (The "HENTAI" Prince and the Stony Cat), which originated as a light novel, but is now being made into a full length TV anime series. As a personal fan of Kantoku's art, I sure hope he does more projects in the future.

(source: 0takomu)

Finally, after much anticipated waiting, fans are rejoicing for the 2nd season of Haganai (Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai). Confirmed on the official Haganai Twitter account, production on the 2nd season has finally been green-lit. It will probably be at least a solid 6-months before we see the 2nd season airing on the Japanese broadcast channels, so it is still a ways off.

Seeing that Funimation and Niconico streamed the 1st season as it aired in Japan, we most likely will see a similar deal go down for the 2nd season.

For those who are not familiar with Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, it originated as a series of light novels that revolve around a transfer student named Kodaka and a girl named Yozora. The two decide to form a club called 'The Neighbors' Club', specifically designed for people who don't have very many friends.

A preview trailer for the new and upcoming Little Busters! anime has finally been revealed. I for one was personally skeptical when I heard that the production company for the anime was J.C. Staff. I really hope J.C. Staff can deliver a quality series that isn't easily forgotten. The trailer isn't too bad so hopefully this is a good sign to a solid production. They are attempting to fill the very large shoes that Kyoto Animation left in their wake.

The anime will premiere in October 2012.

Watch the trailer after the jump!